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North Dakota lawmaker who insulted police in DUI stop gets unsupervised probation and $1,000 fine

Rios has said he is “seriously mulling all aspects” of his future, and plans to seek help for alcoholism, but he has made no plans to resign.

This story is a month old. I set reminders to check the outcome of interesting cases and didn’t see the result of this one until today.

Anyway, of course, a GOP POS won’t resign for behavior that would have destroyed a political career in the past. Way to go, GOP.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Clicked through from that article to find out what the lawmaker said:

Williston police pulled him over on Dec. 15 for failing to maintain his lane, according to an officer’s report. The officer wrote that Rios “was verbally abusive, homophobic, racially abusive and discriminatory” toward him “for the entire duration of the incident following road side testing.”

The homophobic slurs can be heard in body camera footage requested by and provided to The Associated Press. In the recording, Rios also said he would call the North Dakota attorney general about the situation. He told the officers they would “regret picking on me because you don’t know who … I am.”

If there were any black people in North Dakota, they’d be dead within seconds for calling a cop gay. Even if they weren’t under arrest.

This guy gets unsupervised probation and a $1000 fine.

prettybunnys ,

FWIW I don’t think they broke any laws by being a dick, they were just a dick.

And unsupervised probation and a 1000 fine isn’t far from normal punishment for this stuff. I am SURE they had some leniency because of “who they were” but it doesn’t look like they got off ESPECIALLY easy?

Your comment about race and privilege …. I mean, yeah 100%

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

But they didn’t even charge him. People have absolutely been charged for verbally abusing a cop. It’s legal to verbally abuse a cop under the first amendment. That doesn’t stop cops from arresting the person anyway. But oddly, rarely a white person. Unless they’re also dirt poor, of course.

The charges often get overturned, but that’s after someone’s life is already ruined.

Another example of such a case was the subject of a June 2015 decision by the Washington state Supreme Court. The teenage brother of a girl being arrested screamed at the officer for being abusive to his sister and continued to yell at the officer (including calling him a “mother----r”) even after he asked him to stop. The teen never physically got in the way of the officer conducting the arrest but was nevertheless charged and convicted for his words to the officer.

hg.org/…/can-i-get-arrested-just-for-being-rude-t…

This doesn’t apply in North Dakota, but due to a “Blue Lives Matter” law in Louisiana, you can be charged with a hate crime for insulting a cop.

prettybunnys ,

I’ve been arrested for resisting/interfering with arrest (because they had nothing else to get me on) because I used my words to advise someone else being arrested that their rights are being violated.

I know my dude, I’m with you and 100% it could go terribly other places.

Your arguments about what could happen to other folks are perfectly cromulent HOWEVER as much as your arguments fit with my worldview it doesn’t mean this guy was let off especially easy.

I do wish he’d gotten a taste of what the rest of us and especially those of color have to face however.

I agree with you wholeheartedly deeply in my core, emotionally I’m on the same page as you.

pearsaltchocolatebar ,

You can’t get probation and a fine without being charged with a crime.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

But he wasn’t charged for insulting the cop. Do you think if a black person survived the encounter, he wouldn’t have faced a charge for that?

Nurse_Robot ,

I had a $10,000 fine and 2 years of supervised probation with several drug tests a month when this happened to me 10 years ago. What do you mean this is normal?

prettybunnys ,

And my best friend got unsupervised probation and court costs and ordered to have a blow n go but no additional fines. Someone who had previously been on supervised probation for drug charges no less. I’ve never gotten a DUI personally so I can’t use my own anecdote.

What I’m saying is that it’s not crazy abnormal, they plead guilty maybe there was a plea deal idk.

Your experience also isn’t abnormal either, in fact that’s what they advertise on billboards along highways “you just blew 10000”

All I am saying is that there was a lot of assumption and work being done to assign “this is why it happened” in that comment.

Nurse_Robot ,

Defending a racist homophobic politician who broke the law is a weird take, but you do you

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